The Soldier
by Sanguin19
Summary: AU, Set in and from 'Walk with me'… After all that had happened in the past year and a half of the apocalypse Sgt. Calleigh Shepherd thought the only dangers that were left to survive were the undead baying for their flesh... THE REST OF THE SUMMARY IS INSIDE AS IT WAS TOO LONG...Eventual Daryl/OC...(Formerly known as 'Citizen Soldier')
1. Summary and Rights

**Summary**

AU, Set in and on from 'Walk with me'… After all that had happened in the past year and a half of the apocalypse Sgt. Calleigh Shepherd thought the only dangers that were left to survive were the undead baying for their flesh…that is until she and her unit are ambushed by a well-organized group of unknowns, Calleigh and one other are lucky enough to escape the bloodbath and make it to a nearby prison where they find a group of survivors have made it their home already but are these other survivors friend or foe? Find out here.

**Parings within the story:**

Rick/Lori

Maggie/Glenn

Daryl/OC (Eventual)

**Rating(s):**

**T: **bad language

** M: **Violence, Blood/Gore and Horror

**Disclaimer for ALL CHAPTERS**

I DO NOT OWN The Walking Dead or any of it's characters as they all belong to AMC, FOX, Robert Kirkman, Frank Darabont and all the other fantastic people who helped make the show, the comics and the video games.

**I DO HOWEVER OWN THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS SEEN OR MENTIONED IN THIS STORY:**

Sgt. Calleigh 'Cal' Shepherd

Pvt. Harry 'Hal' Meadows

Jessica Shepherd

Mr Shepherd

Mrs Shepherd

and

SSgt Mitch Adams

**(Set to be a nemesis for Calleigh, back-story to be created)**


	2. You can sleep when you're dead

**Chapter One  
You can sleep when you're dead…**

**A/N: Hey Guys, so here is the first chapter of the new story as you can see there are a lot of changes in this chapter alone, i just hope you guys like it a little better than the last as i have tried to make the main OC seem more of a soldier than she was before...anyhow enjoy and let me know what you think of her and the chapter so far... :-) **

The world had ended a little over a year ago…

Some kind of mysterious disease had swept all over the world in a matter of weeks, at first it was like a mass flu epidemic but when those who died came back and began feasting on fellow humans it soon proved to be something much different than first thought, the country was put on a state of high security and military checkpoints were set up in almost every city but that was still not enough to stop the virus and the remaining soldiers abandoned their posts in order to fight another day, a lot of units set up refugee camps to help fellow survivors but eventually one by one they got over ran and had to yet again abandon their posts with what survivors they had left…

"Do you think anything will be the same again?"

This question caught her attention as she sat on the roof of the cargo truck's cab watching out into the distance and twiddling her dog-tags around in her left hand. She traced the lettering engraved into the surface of stainless steel tag with her thumb on one side and her index finger, the writing read:

**Last Name: Shepherd**

**First Name: Calleigh, M.**

**Service No: 278-39-6579**

**Blood Type: B Pos**

**Religion: Protestant **

"What do you mean, Meadows?" she asked as she slipped the chain of the tags over her head and tucked them under her tactical vest with her St. Christopher pendant. She hopped down from the top of the cab wincing from the hot pain that shot up her legs as she landed on the dusty floor below. She wandered over to the young Private who was helping stack supplies from one truck into another across the way.

"Well, do you reckon that this end of the world crap will ever return to the way things were before?" Meadows asked as he took a small break from what he was doing to look up at Calleigh as she reached where he was standing "Like normal civilization and not the fight for survival against creatures that scare the living shit outta you in the movies at the cinema." he added like had been really thinking about it a lot "What do you think, Sarge?" he asked her specifically more than the others.

"You want my honest answer?" she asked with a sigh to which Meadows nodded "I don't think it will ever go back to the good old days…" she replied "This world is too badly damaged, no matter how you die…you come back as a walker" she hesitated a little on the last part as she tried to shake a bad memory that had been dragged up during the explanation "I'm sorry, Meadows but this world is all it's ever gonna be from now on" she sighed as she felt the brief urge of tears thanks to that damned memory.

"Thanks for your honesty, Sarge" Meadows nodded when he saw her glassy eyes "I'm sorry about…" he began to say but Calleigh spoke up and stopped him there.

"Its fine" she replied with a sigh "Just get this stuff packed by the time Lt. Welles gets back, alright?" she told him and the others. Private Harry 'Hal' Meadows was the youngest of the unit at just 19 years of age, the apocalypse was the only actual combat action he had got to see even then he's still been lucky enough to never have been fired at which Calleigh would have classed as a godsend, however, just like the rest of the unit he was stuck in this shit-hole of a world where civilization had turned and begun feeding upon itself.

"Aye, Sarge" one of the other soldiers called Murphy spoke up as he strained to lift a crate with his sunburnt torso. she decided to leave them to it as their Commanding Officer and his recon team would most likely be back soon and they needed to pack up and ready to ship out, she stifled a yawn as she walked across the makeshift camp that they'd been staying in for the past couple of days since they had no choice but to leave their last camp a couple of weeks back when it was over-run.

Calleigh reached into her left leg-pocked and retrieved a partially started pack of cigarettes and a plastic re-fillable lighter, she took one of the cigarettes out and brought it up to her lips ready to light it as she walked, she held the lighter up to the end of it and with a flick of her thumb on the flint-wheel the lighter produced an empty _'Chssk…'_ with a sigh she shook the lighter and tried it again.

_'Chssk…' _yet again with no flame at all so she tried again and again but each and every time was the damned same _'Chssk'_ on the last attempt she got nowhere so she growled with frustration and hurled the defective lighter across the graveled floor before she went to put the cigarette back into the pack but a voice called her name before she could do so…

"What's up, Cal?" it was the voice of Corporal Damon Brad; she looked up and saw him sitting in the front passenger seat of the lead Humvee. Brad was the only surviving soldier that she knew of who passed boot-camp the same year as her although he was a few years older he wanted to do something worthwhile with his life so he enlisted into the United States Army, she wandered over to the Humvee with a small smile.

"Nothin' much" she replied as she reached the Humvee "Just a cheap-ass lighter while needing my daily fix of nicotine" she joked while she slotted the cigarette back into her leg-pocket.

"You really need to give that shit up" Brad smirked as he took a small sip of his makeshift coffee which had no doubt gone cold even in the mid-day heat "It'll kill ya in the end" he told her as he set the coffee down on the dashboard of the vehicle.

"To be honest I'll probably be dead way before that ever happens" Calleigh replied with a small sigh "I hope I will be…" something within her statement caused Brad to don a rather serious expression like all joking had gone out of the conversation…

"Don't you ever talk like that, Cal" he told her with a hit of concern in his voice "It scares the living fuck out of me when I hear a friend talk like that…" he watched as Calleigh rubbed her eyes a little before looking up at him.

"Sorry I didn't mean it to come out like that" she sighed "I just meant…you know what? Just forget I said anything" she added with a yawn, she was just so darned tired after sitting up all-night on sentry duty looking out for walkers and taking them out as quietly as she could without attracting anymore to the camp as the walkers reacted on sound, a gunshot in the night could bring hundreds of the walking corpses by morning "I'm just so frigging tired"

"Well get your head down for a while then" Brad told her but she shook her head.

"Welles left me in charge until he gets back…" she began but then a thought hit her "Talking about Welles, he should be back by now" she stated as she looked up at the mid-day sun "have you heard anything from him or the others?" she asked Brad as he was sitting beside the radio.

"Not a thing…should we go look for him?" Brad replied.

"Give them another hour or so, if there not back by then I'll take two guys and go look for them" she stated as she fiddled with the strap of her rifle before stifling yet another yawn.

"You look dead on your feet, Cal" Brad said as he observed her dull but slightly tanned complexion with the barely visible dark circles under her eyes "When was the last time you actually got any decent sleep?" he asked her.

"Two weeks ago…I think" she replied "I know where you're going with this, Damon so just stop it right there" she told him with a slightly fed-up tone to her voice.

"Where am I going with this then?" Brad shrugged "Well?"

"You seem to think that I'm not sleeping well because of what happened to Jess" Calleigh assumed as she leaned against the side of the Humvee "Well that's bullshit, alright…I can keep my personal and professional feelings separate" she hesitated

"Cal, she was your sister and-" Brad began but like Meadows he too was cut off by Calleigh…

"I think I will grab that hour" She said just to avoid talking about what had happened to her sister, Jess "I'll be in the cargo truck if anyone needs me, alright?" Brad nodded as she turned to leave for the truck that was parked across the other side of the camp from where they were currently stood.

"Cal" Brad called out after her as he took something out of his chest pocket on his jacket, she turned back to face him and see what he wanted "If you still want a smoke…" he chucked the item to her "the refill's in my kit bag on the cargo truck" he told her as she looked at the object he'd threw to her, it was a small silver Zippo lighter with the US Army badge embellished in gold on one side and the word _'Hooah'_ engraved on the other, a small smile crossed her lips as she looked back up at him with a nod "This we'll defend" Brad smirked as he said the army motto.

"Hooah" Calleigh returned with a smirk "thanks, I'll get it back to you when I find a decent lighter" she promised as she put it in her leg pocket.

"Keep it, I don't smoke anymore" Brad replied "No go get some sleep, Fifty" it'd been a while since she'd heard someone call her by her nickname, although it was a cheesy nickname it never failed to amuse her even when she first got it back in the middle-east.

"You got it, Cowboy" she nodded with a small smile, Calleigh had decided to return the whole nickname thing because she thought it was only fair, Brad had grown up on a small ranch somewhere near Savannah which by their old buddies back at boot camp gleefully gave him the nickname of 'Cowboy' which he didn't seem to mind too much.

"You might wanna pack a go-bag for if Welles and his crew aren't back" Brad also suggested as she walked away.

"Beat ya to it" Calleigh called back as she walked over to the cargo truck, she'd always had a go-bag ready for if she ever needed it in an emergency, it contained the bare essentials: Ammo, Food, a spare change of clothing, a small Medical kit, a Radio and a map of Georgia, Calleigh always made sure she kept it in order and everything topped up to what it should be.

She climbed up into the truck and carefully made her way to the back grabbing a tattered old blanket as a makeshift pillow along the way, she folded and set the blanket down on the floor and tried to settle down after leaning her rifle against the crates by her feet, once she'd found a comfortable position to lay in Calleigh closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind of the days troubles.

But it seemed that she'd never get the rest she needed...

There was the sound of a vehicle approaching, it sounded like a single car and definitely not military as the engine sounded too soft for a Jeep or a Humvee…

"Alright, stay alert guys" she heard Brad tell the others as the acting squad leader, Calleigh couldn't hear the other party's reply but she sure could hear Brad and the others "Identify yourself" he ordered…

With Brad handling it then surely she shouldn't have anything to be worried about…should she?

**To Be Continued…**

**A/N: so hears the first chapter of my re-written story, I hope you guys can see the changes that I've made as I have even changed her name because I just didn't think Rachel packed the punch the character needed so I decided to call her Calleigh instead, I hope you guys didn't mind her being put as the platoon leader but I just thought that it'd give her a little bit more of a character and a reason to hate the Governor for now…**

**Anyway let me know what you guys think via your comments and reviews.**

**P.S: I'd like to say thanks to my new Beta reader Gurl3677 for helping me sort the finer details out.**

**Thanks, **

**S19**


	3. The Ambush

**Chapter Two: The Ambush**

**Last chapter's ending:**

_"Alright, stay alert guys" she heard Brad tell the others as the acting squad leader, Calleigh couldn't hear the other party's reply but she sure could hear Brad and the others "Identify yourself" he ordered…_

_With Brad handling it then surely she shouldn't have anything to be worried about…should she?_

With a tired yawn she closed her eyes and tried to relax a little more although the heat within the truck was almost unbearable, she began to grow drowsy over those brief few moments as she listened to the conversation going on outside…

_"Don't shoot!"_ a guy called out obviously from the other group that had just arrived "We found your guy, Welles? Lt. Welles?" he continued though just the mention of the Lieutenant's name had caught Calleigh's attention as her eyes flicked open and she listened harder "His chopper went down…" he explained but was interrupted by the keen voice of Brad.

"Well, where is he?" Brad asked the stranger with some degree of urgency, Calleigh grew curious of the situation and decided to take a peek through the small window into the trucks cabin and out through the windscreen at this new person, she could only just see the guy because he was slightly blurred and a little obstructed by Brad standing in the way but what she could see of him was a guy in his mid to late 30's possibly his 40's, dressed in a light grey shirt, khaki pants and a black vest jacket while he waved a white handkerchief.

"We've got a little settlement not far from here…" the guy continued as he slowly approached the group of soldiers "Now, he's badly hurt... but he's alive" he seemed a little nervous which was not surprising as there were several guns pointed in his direction "The other guys didn't make it, I'm sorry…" hearing this saddened Calleigh a little.

"Damn it" she sighed to herself, Sean and Franklin were two good guys that she'd known back from her last tour overseas in the middle-east, she hoped it was at least a quick death for them and that if they had to die then it be on impact and not hours of agony…though she knew they would most-likely have come back as walkers which she hated to think of it but in nowadays it was a regular occurrence.

"Welles told me how to find you guys here" the stranger told them "He wants me to bring you to him" Calleigh could hear the happy chatter of a few of her squad mates but for some strange reason she wasn't all that convinced, there was something a little off about the situation…

"They've found Welles!" she heard Meadows cheer "They got him, they found him…"

"We sure did…" the stranger smirked as he reached into the back of his belt, Calleigh felt her heart jump up into her throat as a chill ran up her sweat-dampened spine, she grabbed her rifle and was about to head out… "We found you too…" the stranger pulled a hand gun and shot Brad at close range in the chest…

Suddenly after that first shot all hell broke loose as rapid gunfire from several different angles rang out, Calleigh froze up in disbelief of hearing her friends getting massacred by an unknown force, she dropped down on to her stomach to avoid being hit by the odd rounds that pierced the canopy of the truck, that's when a clattering sound startled her causing the young sergeant to draw her Browning Hi-Power sidearm and point it at the entrance of the truck as the scared and shaking form of Private Meadows scrambled into the back of the truck…

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" he hyperventilated before seeing Calleigh's gun pointed briefly at his head "D-don't shoot!" he whimpered with his hands held up as the rapid fire from outside came to an end with a deathly silence.

"I'm not gonna shoot ya, dumb-ass" she whispered with a small sigh of relief as she holstered her handgun and began looking around the truck's contents to figure out her next move "What happened out there?" she asked the fearful soldier as she grabbed her go-bag and began stuffing extra supplies into it.

"S-some guy just drove up to the entrance claiming that he found the Lieutenant…" the young soldier replied but as he watched Calleigh grab a pair of tactical Tomahawks from the top of a crate and passed one to him before clipping her one to the back of her belt.

"I know that private, I meant did you see how many guys he has?" she whispered as she nodded him towards the exit of the truck "We need to get the hell out of here, quietly" she told him as he slowly and carefully moved towards the exit.

"I don't know, I-I couldn't see anyone" he whispered back before he climbed out the back of the truck being sure not to make a single sound as Calleigh followed, he watched as she knelt down and peered around the side of the truck at the voices they could now hear belonging to the attackers "What's going on?" he asked the Sergeant but was shushed as she continued looking…

Calleigh watched as the leader or the guy she gathered to be the leader knelt beside the bloodied and dying form of Corporal Brad; she wondered what was going on as he reached for the sling of Brad's M4a1 rifle before he cut it with a knife and took the rifle from him before standing up with it.

Suddenly with no mercy or hesitation the leader gripped the rifle and smashed the butt down on Brad's head not once but three brutal and bone crunching times, Brad's head damn near split open like a water melon as his blood leaked out onto the dust-ridden floor; a few seconds later the leader was joined by eight other figures…

"Shit" she sighed before she glanced over her shoulder at Meadows "Brad and the others are dead, it's just us now and we are outnumbered…" she whispered.

"How many?" Meadows replied as he nervously gripped his M4 carbine rifle.

"I've counted nine hostiles so far" she sighed before a familiar guy's voice grabbed her attention…

"So now what, boss?" the voice itself came from where the nine guys were standing by Brad's body, Calleigh peered around the side of the truck again to see if it was who she thought, her eyes scanned the group before they set upon a guy stood next to the governor with a bolt action rifle; the guy looked to be in his early thirties with a slightly muscled build, black hair and a slight stubble. He was wearing tattered denim jeans and a tanned vest with military grade boots and a black bandana tied around his left bicep.

"Son of a bitch…" Calleigh grumbled "Can my day get any fucking worse?"

"What?" Meadows asked

"Nothing" she replied bluntly as she turned and looked for a way out of the mess they were currently in, she tried to think of a way that they could get out of there without being spotted and possibly killed by the other party.

"The forest" Meadows suggested as he watched the Sergeant contemplating their situation "Surely that's worth a shot, right?" he asked as Calleigh sighed thanks to her search turning up practically nothing.

"It's risky" she told him as she took a look at it from where they were hiding "80 yards of open ground, no cover whatsoever…" she pointed out "But if we move fast enough and avoid running in a straight line, I think we have a fair chance" she nodded as she got to her feet and put the bag on her back "You ready?" she asked him.

"Let's do this" Meadows nodded as he stood up and slid his rifle's strap over his head so the weapon lay across his back.

"We go on my mark…" she uttered as she peeked around the corner checking on where the intruders were standing and which direction they were facing; it seemed that luck was in their favor for now as the hostiles were currently picking at the supplies of the truck at the front of the convoy, Calleigh looked back at Meadows and nodded "Let's get the hell out of here" she whispered.

"Amen to that" Meadows sighed as Calleigh set off making sure she stayed in line with the truck to keep within cover for as long as she could, Meadows let her get a few feet ahead before he to made a move following the sergeant; for the first 15 yards it seemed to go well for them as they were hidden by the truck but as they got further towards the forest across the space it was beginning to sink in on how much danger they were actually in.

Calleigh glanced over her shoulder occasionally to check that Meadows was still there, for that brief moment in time she thought they were on the home straights and that they'd make it to the safety of the forest before any of the intruders noticed them…that notion was soon put out of her mind when she heard the distant gunshot before the bullet whizzed past her head…

"They've seen us!" Meadows shouted ahead to her as they ran.

"No shit!" she snapped back at the young private who seemed to be stating the obvious "Do not run in a straight line" she warned him as they ran as fast as their legs could carry them across the uneven terrain; the 65 yards felt more like a mile thanks to the backpack that could have easily weighed a third of her own body weight and the unforgiving mid-day sun beating down on them from above "C'mon" she willed herself "you've made it through worse shit than this."

As they ran she could hear Meadows reciting a prayer in Latin asking for a safe deliverance through the current situation they were in, Calleigh looked up ahead of them and saw the first slope of the hill that would buy them time to escape once they got over the other side, Calleigh tried to push herself to run faster so she could get up the slope with little effort but she was just so exhausted already as they reached the foot of the slope.

"C'mon, up the slope!" she yelled as she was the first to attempt the steep ascent, clinging to the grassy surface and pulling herself up a fast as her arms and legs could take her as she eventually reached the edge "C'mon Meadows, you can do it!" she encouraged her comrade a he began his climb up the slope, Calleigh grabbed her rifle flicking the safety off with her thumb and took aim at the intruders as she steadied her breathing in order get a decent aim on the first hostile standing next to the leader of the group.

Her finger lightly hooped across the trigger as she lined the crosshairs up on the head of the unlucky target before she squeezed the trigger and sent the 7.62 caliber hurtling down towards the hostile, she watched through the rifle's scope as the round struck the target in the left-side of his forehead causing a fine layer of blood spray to cover the two guys standing near him as he fell to the ground with his freshly ventilated skull.

"Good to go, Sarge" Meadows told her as he reached the top of the hill where she was kneeling with the M14 rifle aimed at the group who had dived for cover after her first and devastating shot that claimed the life of one of their own.

"Let's go" She nodded as she fired two more shots to ensure the intruders kept their head down for a few more seconds buying them enough time to get ahead "You go first, I'll cover you" she told him as she removed the backpack and rolled it down the other side of the hill before aiming back at the intruders "When you get down to the bottom, take the bag and keep heading north" she instructed him calmly.

"What about you?" he asked her "you're coming too, right?" he wasn't sure if he'd misunderstood what she was saying.

"I'm gonna try to slow them down and hopefully thin their number down a little" she briefly explained "Now go, I'll catch up soon…" she added as she fired another shot or two narrowly missing a hostile who had stuck his head above the cover of the Humvee Brad had been sitting in.

"But…" Meadows went to argue but Calleigh was having none of it.

"Just go, private!" she ordered with a slightly snappy tone "This is no time for a fucking debate!"

"Fine" Meadows grumbled as he reluctantly set off down the slope "Good luck" he sighed before reaching and grabbing the backpack while Calleigh provided more cover, Meadows slipped the bag over his back and set off like he'd been instructed to leaving Calleigh to carry out what plan she'd concocted in her mind.

She waited a few seconds more for Meadow to get far enough away before she shifted from her firing position and scooted down the slope leading to the forest, now that she had more freedom to move and only herself to look out for it was like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she could think clearly as she ran a little further into the forest where she could carry out her plan.

She must have ran at least another sixty to seventy yards in to the wooded terrain taking note of any points she could use to her advantage as she could hear the shouting in the distance behind her, knowing she had little time Calleigh grabbed her rifle and took cover behind a tree that happened to have a 'v' shape split in the trunk at the right height for sniping from a kneeling position; with a smirk Calleigh knelt down and took aim ready for whatever or whoever gets caught in her crosshairs.

A few moments passed by and there wasn't a single sight or sound of the hostiles, had they gone? Was it safe to move out?

"Must be my lucky day" Calleigh smirked to herself as she lifted her eye from the scope…

Suddenly there was the sound of a twig snapping behind her, but before she could turn to investigate it she felt the pressure of something being pressed gently against the back of her head, it was followed a split second later by the metallic clink of a weapon's safety catch being turned off…

"I don't think so, sweetheart" a gruff voice spoke up "Drop the gun"

"Shit…" she grumbled…

**A/N: Sorry it's a little cryptic lol but I had a break from it for a while and tried to pick up as best I could, read through and let me know what you reckon guys :-) **

**Thanks,**

**S19**


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